Bid me run,

And I will strive

With things impossible.

— Shakespeare

Let’s face it, Jamaicans born fi run, or in standard English, born to run. Note that I said standard English and not proper English, as some snooty people like to say. There is nothing improper about our native language, so when we say, “Him born fi run,” we know exactly what we mean. God bless Miss Lou who made us proud of our language.

As the quote above said, ‘Bid me run and I will strive with things impossible,’ and what seemingly impossible things we have accomplished in the sport of track. Yes, the evidence is clear, Jamaicans are born to run fast and nobody can’t tell me otherwise. I do not know if this ability came from our ancestral tribe that was brought here from Africa, but no other country in the entire world has sprinters like us.

Oh, other countries may have a top sprinter or two once in a while, but the consistency of Jamaican sprinters is legendary. Of course, some people will say that it’s due to the passion that we have for running, but other people from different countries have serious passion too, but dem cyaan run like we.

Are you telling me that of all the hundreds of countries in the world, only Jamaica has this passion for sprinting? I’m sure that if you line up 100 four-year-old children from different countries and say, ‘On your marks, get set, go!’ the Jamaican pickney dem will run leff the others.

It can’t be just passion or environment, although those are factors, but it has to be in our genetic makeup. Just check the world’s great sprinters over the years at the Olympics or World Championships and you’ll see that either they are Jamaican or have Jamaican roots, even though they don’t live here. People like Linford Christie from Britain; Donovan Bailey from Canada; Ben Johnson, Canada; Sanya Richards-Ross, USA; Gabby Thomas, USA; and many others who ran for other countries, but all had Jamaican heritage via parents, grandparents or even great grandparents.

It’s in the lineage, it’s in our DNA, and we born fi run. I’ll examine the dynamics of this, right after these responses to what I had to say about my piece, ‘Call it off…the wedding that is’.

Tony,

Re Call it Off, as usual, interesting findings. I’m wondering if marriage is really necessary though. It’s an institution, as the cliché says, but to me it’s a demanding career and works most times just for personal security and convenience.

Paulette

Teerob,

To call it off must be a very traumatic and painful decision that anyone can make after all the emotional, physical, romantic, and financial investment that went into the planning of the wedding. But better to experience a short period of pain and shame rather than a lifetime of misery and hell. I’m sure that many people secretly wish that they had called it off years ago, as they are now suffering greatly right now. If I had the courage to call it off, I wouldn’t be trapped in this hell right now.

Douglas

Have you ever watched the
Discovery channel and seen the cheetah run? This fastest land animal on Earth can reach speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour and has no equal. It’s a joy to watch, but seeing them on TV does them no justice. I had the privilege of witnessing those beautiful cats put through their paces at a game reserve in South Africa during my visit there with the victorious Seido karate team.

The game warden would take the cats out for morning exercise runs, and to see them effortlessly jog beside her vehicle and then flash past it when she accelerated to 60 mph or more was a sight to behold. Cheetahs born fi run.

That’s the same way I feel when I watch our athletes run, and this applies to those as young as four or five years old at basic school championships. When I see those little tots sprinting down the track with a form that belies their tender years, it makes me marvel. As people would say, “Dat nuh normal.”

Then when we see them perform at Prep and Primary School Championship, they step it up to another level, as it bolsters my theory that sprinting is in our genetic makeup. Those children are unbelievable, with some of the primary school kids running around the track barefoot.

Yes, even without the luxury of track shoes or sneakers, our little speed merchants perform like world class sprinters, undaunted, unbothered, unperturbed by the lack of footwear. Why, because we born fi run.

But it’s when they step it up a notch and perform at the biggest and best high school track event in the western hemisphere, Boys’ and Girls’ Championships (Champs), that we see the prowess and potential of our runners, jumpers, and throwers.

Boys’ and Girls’ Champs is so phenomenal that dozens of media houses and scouts from foreign converge here to document what takes place at the five-day event. Champs is huge, and almost all of the foreign reporters who visit here have the same thing to say, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

When our sprinters leave here and participate in the Penn Relays in the USA, we dominate it, oftentimes smashing American records as we blaze down the track. When we participate in the Carifta Games or Commonwealth Games we are a dominant force, and at the Olympics we are always top draw. This has been going on from the days of Herb McKenley, Arthur Wint, George Rhoden, at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, to our modern-day sprinters such as Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Kishane Thompson, Oblique Seville, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Merlene Ottey, Donald Quarrie, Lennox Billy Miller, Grace Jackson, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, Shericka Jackson, and so many others who would fill this page if I listed them all.

Which other country on Earth can boast such riches? It’s no fluke, other countries have great passion for running fast too, but we born fi run. And even with our limited resources we are dominant on the world stage, so much so that many athletes from foreign have decided to leave their wealthy countries and train here, under the tutelage of our gifted coaches.

What’s the secret of our sprinting success, is it the water, the food, our swag, our lifestyle, our passion, our genetic makeup or a combination of all? I still maintain that it’s in our DNA. Why is it that the world’s fastest man and the world’s fastest woman are Jamaicans? We are a mere three million people compared to the USA with more than 300 million, and yet we are their fiercest rivals for many years and dem fraid ah we like puss.

In the recently concluded World Championships held in Tokyo, we won gold and silver in the premiere event of sprinting, the 100 metres for men, Oblique and Kishane, and young Tina Clayton won silver in the female equivalent against far more seasoned and older sprinters than her. We got silver and bronze in the 110 meters hurdles with two relatively unheralded runners against the so-called stars and veterans, and young Bryan Levell won bronze in the 200 metres in his first big outing, beating the Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo.

We are always in the mix, always making our mark, always throwing down the gauntlet, because we born fi run. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has achieved more than any other female sprinter who has lived, spanning decades, winning countless championships and still competing. Shericka Jackson is the fastest living woman over the 200 meters.

I can name so many countries that are bigger than us, richer than us, with far more resources at their disposal, but dem cyaan beat we in sprinting. What’s interesting is that many sprinters from other countries, who are from mixed race parents and who perform well on the world stage, you can bet that one parent is Jamaican. Dem get touch by de Jamaican sprint gene.

There are a few from Japan, Switzerland, Germany, who perform well. That’s due to the Jamaican DNA and genes in their bloodline that make them so quick.

“How come that black Japanese guy can run so fast?”

“His father is Jamaican.”

That only bolsters my theory about the genetic makeup that contributes to our sprinting prowess. I’m sure that if you took an Irishman, or a Scotsman, a Peruvian, or someone from Croatia or Kyrgyzstan or Nepal and exposed them to the same training regimen of Usain, Shelly, Asafa or others, they would never run as fast as our Jamaicans.

And speaking of training, we may have the raw talent yes, but it’s the hard training that brings it out. However, the foundation has to be there. You can take a mule and train it with equal rigour as a thoroughbred racehorse, it will never run as fast.

We do so well that we are often victims of our own success, and whenever a Jamaican graces the track, our people expect them to win. People, I’m begging you, do not curse our athletes when they don’t win. It’s a difficult, challenging, brutal and unforgiving sport. It hard, it hard, it hard, plus injuries are cruel, but they give their best every time. Even champions falter.

But given our rich legacy from a country so small, it must be concluded that not only are we likkle but tallawah, but we born fi run.

More time.

seido1yard@gmail.com

Footnote: What a wonderful and thrilling World Championships it was, with Jamaica shining brightly. We came third on the medal table regarding medals won with 10 — one gold, six silver and three bronze. Only the USA with 26 and Kenya with 11 won more medals than us. Two hundred countries participated. Truly a remarkable achievement. Our athletes are worthy ambassadors and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is the queen of them all as she ended the championships with yet another medal, silver in the relays, after an astonishing career. So many athletes did their personal best (PB) with Navasky Anderson being the first Jamaican to reach the 800 metres final with a new national record. Our team made us proud, very proud.